Gay 13-Year-Old Shoots Himself Due To Bullying, Parents Say

Parents are claiming that a 13-year-old, Asher Brown killed himself due to bullying in Cypress, Texas according to the Houston Chronicle.

The eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

Brown, his family said, was “bullied to death” — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes. Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.

Brown was found dead on the floor of his stepfather’s closet at the family’s home in the 11700 block of Cypresswood about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. He used his stepfather’s 9 mm Beretta, stored on one of the closet’s shelves, to kill himself. He left no note. David Truong found the teen’s body when he arrived home from work

On the morning of his death, the teen told his stepfather he was gay, but Truong said he was fine with the disclosure. “We didn’t condemn,” he said.